I wanted to focus my found poem on something that is full of emotion. I used the song “New” by Daya to break out the emotion and compare it to M. NourbeSe Philip’s Zong!. In Philip’s writing she uses a breakdown of letters, words and sentences to make a bigger picture. There are many blank spaces in Philip’s writing pieces in Zong! which I have tried to incorporate in my own found poem. Having blank spaces speaks louder than words in some situations. Blank spaces leave a pause, something to leave the reader wondering. Another thing I have tried to do that Philip’s has done in her own work is the use of repetition. Repetition is something that puts light on a main topic. This strategy will highlight what the author is bringing across and engrave it in the reader’s mind. My found poem also blocks out some words, uses a different font, changes the color of a word, uses bold and italics. All of these were tactics to pull out the emotion from the song. Normally, I know this is an emotional song to begin with; however when putting it all together and pulling out the points that I wanted to make, it started to have a different meaning. Without breaking this song apart it is emotional, however after the found poem was made I realized this is a poem about vulnerability during a heartbreak. This assignment has taught me not only a different way to create a poem outside of school curriculum, but the importance of why Philip’s did this strategy in Zong!.
Hi Emma! I really enjoyed reading your found poem. I liked how you included different fonts, blocks and font colors. I also liked how the phrase “the hell” is red because when you think of that specific word that is usually the color associated with it. It was such a good idea to include the repetition of “missing” , “wanting”, and “thinking” in your poem because it really highlighted the main point of heartbreak. It also made me think about what those repeated words mean and how they relate to the other words put in the poem. The fact that you included the blacked-out spaces was a really cool addition which is something that I could see Philip’s doing in her writing. This found poem does a really good job at capturing the emotions that are felt during a heartbreak.